LANGLEY, Ark. — Authorities searched an Arkansas wilderness area Monday for a group of Louisiana Boy Scouts thought to be stranded behind rain-swollen waterways.
No one has heard from the six Scouts and two troop leaders since Thursday, when they arrived at the Albert Pike Recreation Area, a remote area with little cellphone coverage.
State police dispatched a helicopter to help in the search Monday, but winds were too strong for it to be flown safely.
In June, flash flooding along the Little Missouri River valley floor killed 20 people in the same recreation area.
The Scouts were experienced backpackers for their age — 14 on average and equipped with survival skills — and it was thought they camped along the 26.8-mile Eagle Rock Loop above the flood plain.
Art Hawkins, executive director of the Scouts’ Evangeline Area Council in Lafayette, La., said authorities think the Scouts were cut off by rising water on the Little Missouri River, whose level tripled over the weekend, or one of its many tributaries.
When no one heard from them by late Sunday, Boy Scout officials contacted local authorities, Hawkins said.
More than a dozen of the boys’ relatives stationed themselves outside a camping store near the recreation area, waiting for the latest news.
